Pedro da Costa Profile picture
Aug 22, 2019 17 tweets 3 min read Read on X
THREAD—Trump’s Labor Pick Scalia Kept Workers in Pain progressive.org/op-eds/trumps-… forbes.com/sites/pedrodac…
"His first nominee, fast-food mogul Andrew Puzder, came under fire for his own labor practices, including hiring an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper, and was forced to withdraw his nomination when it became clear the Senate would not confirm it.
"Trump’s next pick, Alex Acosta, had to resign in mid-July over his handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes prosecution when he was U.S. attorney in Florida more than a decade ago.
"And now President Trump is poised to nominate Eugene Scalia, whose anti-regulatory advocacy two decades ago helped fuel today’s opioid epidemic.
"Scalia, the son of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, was recognized by the Wall Street Journal for having 'devoted almost a decade to representing corporate clients fighting rules put in place by the Obama administration ...
"'that were designed to protect employees in the workplace' — a curious attribute for a future labor secretary."
"In fact, Scalia’s anti-regulation record stretches back at least another decade. In 1993, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began work on a new ergonomics standard to address hazards that cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs)...
"... a wide range of injuries including carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain and tendonitis. Automakers, garment factories, office environments, and meat-packing and poultry plants were seeing alarming rates of disabling WMSDs.
"So OSHA set out to require employers to implement a new standard to reduce these injuries. But industry lobbyists bemoaned the costs and derided OSHA’s efforts as over-regulation."
"One of their champions was Eugene Scalia, a labor and employment attorney in Washington, D.C., who went on to work for the Department of Labor under President George W. Bush. Scalia helped lead the assault on the ergonomics regulation...
"... ridiculing it in a report for the conservative Cato Institute as a 'folly' based on 'thoroughly unreliable science.'"
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that musculoskeletal injuries are the nation’s most prevalent occupational injury, totaling, in 2017, 34 percent of serious nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in manufacturing. That’s almost 350,000 cases in one year.
"Each of these cases involves often severe, debilitating, long-term pain that is frequently managed with opioids.
"A recent American Industrial Hygiene Association paper notes, 'Although many factors have contributed to the opioid crisis, the role of workplace musculoskeletal injuries has been overlooked.'
"Industry opposition to the ergonomics standard led to painful musculoskeletal injuries, and fed the high incidence of opioid prescriptions."
"Eugene Scalia was at the forefront of those actively fighting that ill-fated regulation two decades ago. Workers, their families and their communities now bear the awful consequences.
"That’s not the best credential for a future labor secretary."epi.org/blog/why-eugen…

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More from @pdacosta

Jul 6, 2020
"Slavery was and is a pathology of economics." niesr.ac.uk/blog/economics…
"Slavery is regarded as arising for reasons which have nothing to do with economics; it is seen as a social or historical phenomenon. Our standard take therefore is that the practice is 'utterly unthinkable now; what more is there to say? No need for a guilt trip.'
"But people-traders and people-owners were in it for profit. And profit-seeking is very much our core business.
Read 13 tweets
Jul 1, 2020
THREAD—Workers are getting laid off for a second time, as the virus’s surge puts reopenings on hold washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…
"When she was first furloughed in March, Randee Heitzmann knew how to make ends meet.

She deferred payments on her new Honda Civic, spent $3,000 in stimulus money and tax refunds on other payments, and drained her savings.
"Then she was called back to her job as a bartender at a cigar bar near Dallas for five weeks, taking home about $100 per shift, just 20 percent of what she was used to.

But on Friday, Heitzmann was cut loose again, hours before her shift was to begin.
Read 18 tweets
Jun 30, 2020
THREAD—"Modern economics has a deep and painful set of roots that too few economists acknowledge. The founding leadership of the American Economic Association deeply and fervently provided 'scientific' succor to the American eugenics movement." forbes.com/sites/pedrodac…
"Their concept of race and human interaction was based on the 'racial' superiority of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants. minneapolisfed.org/~/media/assets…
"And they launched modern economics with a definition of race that fully incorporated the assumed superiority of that group and bought into a notion of race as an exogenous variable.
Read 38 tweets
Jun 28, 2020
"This virus is still out there. We respond to 911 calls for covid every day. I’ve been on the scene at more than 200 of these deaths—trying to revive people, consoling their families—but you can’t even be bothered to stay six feet apart and wear a mask?" washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06…
"Some of us can’t stop thinking about it. I woke up this morning to about 60 new text messages from paramedics who are barely holding it together. Some are still sick with the virus. At one point we had 25 percent of EMTs in the city out sick.
"Others are living in their cars so they don’t risk bringing it home to their families. They’re depressed. They’re emotionally exhausted. They’re drinking too much. They’re lashing out at their kids. They’re having night terrors and panic attacks and all kinds of outbursts.
Read 26 tweets
May 16, 2020
Boris Johnson’s physician calls Covid-19 'this generation’s polio’ as new evidence emerges of long-term effects bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
"What these chronic issues ultimately look like – and how many patients ultimately experience them – will have huge implications for patients, the doctors who treat them, and the health systems around them." - Kimberly Powers, epidemiologist at UNC Chapel Hill
"Hong Kong’s hospital authority has been monitoring a group of Covid-19 patients for up to two months since they were released. They found about half of the 20 survivors had lung function below the normal range."
Read 4 tweets
Apr 20, 2020
THREAD—A Glaring New Conflict Of Interest Undermines Public Trust In Federal Reserve forbes.com/sites/pedrodac…
The Federal Reserve just made the problem of financial firms considered 'too big to fail' a whole lot bigger.
That's because the U.S. central bank has hired private equity giant BlackRock BLK, which manages some $7 trillion in assets, to run purchases of corporate bonds and commercial mortgages that are part of its response to the pandemic-led recession. nytimes.com/2020/03/27/bus…
Read 10 tweets

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